Daily Archives: January 18, 2009

It was a beautiful morning as I left home just before sunrise this morning. The sky was one of those amazing shades of pinky orange and I had a few extra minutes before I was due at the church for worship music practice. I had my camera in my purse and on the spur of the moment decided to take a short detour in order to get a better picture of the sky.

You know what that means – short detours have a way of taking you places you had NO intention of ending up.

I thought that the road leading down to the sewage treatment plant, just on the edge of town, a few minutes from the street I take to get to church anyway, would give me the view I wanted – lots of sky and trees on one side, river on the other.

I didn’t think I was driving that close to the side of the road. But it was way softer than I anticipated and my front right wheel got caught in the soft snow on the shoulder. It was as if an irresistible force took hold of that wheel and pulled me right down there into the ditch.

So, there I was. At the bottom of a deep ditch in soft snow. My spare minutes for photography were all of a sudden used up and I was not exactly at the church.

I think I got a good dose of my father’s stubbornness. I flashed back to one of those times when we, the whole family in the car, were hopelessly stuck in some mud hole on a dirt road that he had thought worthy of exploration. We would all end up having to push or walk to the nearest farm to get help. I swore I would never be like that!

At least, I was alone. Stupid maybe, but alone with my stupidity. My stubbornness showed up about then and I decided that I would just drive out. After all, I have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Well, maybe not meant for off-roading but 4 wheel drive should be good for something. And, I was not stuck. I mean the vehicle could move – parallel to the road in the ditch – quite freely.

We did it, that CRV and me. And maybe the Almighty gave me a small push between his guffaws of laughter at this silly woman who he loves too much to imagine, this daughter of another one of his beloved children. Maybe they both had a good laugh.

I was only ten minutes late for practice. It was a particularly good and joyful morning as I had a good laugh at myself too.